[media-credit name=”RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post ” align=”alignnone” width=”495″][/media-credit] Chantel Blunk, wife of Jonathan Blunk, waits on the tarmac at Denver International Airport in July as her husband’s body is about to be loaded into a plane to fly to Reno for his full military funeral. Blunk, a five-year U.S. Navy veteran, was killed during a July 20 shooting rampage at a movie theater in Aurora — the sixth-most searched news topic on Yahoo! this year.

“Election 2012″ was the most searched news topic in 2012 with the theater shooting in Aurora in July coming in at No. 6, according to Yahoo!

Yahoo! this morning released its Year in Review, the annual look back at the top stories and trends of the year based on the daily search habits of millions of people.

Mitt Romney gained ground among Colorado’s key independent voters since becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but President Obama still enjoys a 7-point lead here, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling.

PPP says the results show the race tightening compared with its last poll, which was conducted in early April and showed Obama with a 13-point lead. Few political observers in Colorado, however – including folks with the Obama campaign – ever believed the president had an advantage that large. And most are saying that whoever wins Colorado won’t do so by a margin close to the 9 points by which Obama won in 2008 – meaning these latest numbers may still be a stretch.

Two freshman lawmakers are on their way to the Republican National Convention after a round of voting that stunned seasoned politicos.

Rep. J. Paul Brown of Ignacio came in third out of 852 Republicans running Saturday to attend the convention in Tampa in August. Sen. Kevin Grantham of Canon City placed fourth.

To put that in perspective, the top vote-getter among those running for the 12 at-large seats was former Congressman Bob Beauprez. The second highest was former University of Colorado president and U.S. Sen. Hank Brown.

What the heck happened?

“I’m not sure,” said Rep. Brown. “It was the biggest surprise of my life. I wasn’t even sure I would get elected delegate.”

More than a week after the Denver County GOP Assembly, it’s still difficult to sort out what led to what one Republican called a “descent into madness.”

Florence Sebern said she unwittingly sparked the brouhaha that led to claims that Ron Paul supporters were trying to take over when she approached a floor microphone to ask that the assembly adopt a calendar that included taking a lunch break.

She said the group Denver Republican Women had arranged for five businesses to sell food to the 650 or so Republicans expected to show up at the assembly because a lunch break had been planned.

But district captain Steve Brown argued what happened was a “militant minority attempt to take control of the assembly through use of these tactics of disruption, accusation and intimidation.”

“The argument was that the new rules should be adopted so we could have a lunch hour, but the real reason was not that at all,” he said. “It seems rather that it was designed to draw out the assembly meeting time out so long that most other delegates would leave either in disgust or out of boredom, leaving the remaining assembly to go onto elections which would feature mostly their own supporters.”

Democrats and Republicans held a number of county assemblies today, but it looks like the real fun happened at the Denver County Republican Assembly, with Ron Paul supporters clashing with party officers.

Republican Kelly Maher videotaped the event and posted it on her personal YouTube account. She said Ron Paul delegates were trying to shout down Denver County GOP Chairman Danny Stroud, Treasurer Alex Hornaday and Secretary Brett Moore.

Call pointed to a recent interview with Rick Palacio, chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party, who told The Denver Post “What this caucus is about, is just, it’s really a way for the president’s supporters to show their enthusiasm” and “The caucus … is about showing that enthusiasm and coming together as a party.”

“If Democrats in Colorado are really as enthusiastic about the re-election of Barack Obama as their state chairman promises they are, we should expect Democratic caucus turnout today that meets or exceeds the turnout of 120,971 the Democrats saw in 2008,” Call wrote in a news release.

Said Palacio: “It is a preposterous claim on Ryan Call’s part that if we don’t have more than 120,000 people tonight it’s a failure.”

Palacio also pointed out the congressional races for Democrats are basically opponent free in this year’s primary. In 2008, an open seat in the 2nd Congressional District featured Democrats Wil Shafroth, Joan Fitz-Gerald and Jared Polis vying for the nomination.

In 2008 in Colorado, three out of five Latinos cast their ballots for Obama. Latinos comprise 9 percent of the state’s registered voters.

An interesting twist in the Fox polling data, according to the story based on the poll, is that in grading President Obama, Latino voters give him the lowest marks on immigration.

Paradoxically, immigration is also the issue in which President Obama receives his lowest approval rating among Latino voters –some 41 percent disapprove of the job he is doing regarding immigration, with the number climbing higher to 56 percent among Latinos between the age of 35 and 44.

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney mingles with supporters in Colorado. The state's citizens have given about $700,000 more to Republican candidates than to President Obama's re-election effort through January, election records show.

WASHINGTON — Coloradans have given $700,000 more to Republican presidential candidates than to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, federal election filings show today.

Coloradans have donated $1.9 million collectively to Republican presidential candidates and $1.2 million to Obama, through Jan. 31.

Santorum did relatively poorly in fundraising through January, collecting a measly $67,254 from the state’s voters so far. This compares to Texas congressman Ron Paul, who has garnered $309,597 through last month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who received $228,033 and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who received $150,867 from Coloradans.

David Misner and his partner, Sen. Pat Steadman, lean in for a kiss at the Democrats' annual Jefferson Jackson Day dinner in downtown Denver Saturday. The couple will celebrate their 11th anniversary on Tuesday, Valentine's Day.

UPDATE:Other Democrats have offered their thoughts.

Images from the Colorado Democrats’ annual Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner in downtown Denver on Saturday, as offered up by some of the participants:

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.